Nearly recovered from a terrible start to sneak into the playoffs, but managed just one win in the last five games to assure the season remained disappointing. There are some pieces in place, but an infusion of youth seemed to do the Sabres some good when the season appeared lost and could help right from the start next season.

I would have us ranked around 10th as well, going into the season with our top 3 centers (potentially) being all 23 or under and not a whole lot of NHL games under their belt..a lot of uncertainty.

I think at the same time if these kids break out it could be a great year for us. I mean if we get steady scoring with our strong backend and goaltending, it's certainly reasonable for us to be in the top 4 of our conference IMO.

After looking at the rosters in the East more closely, I'm not as convinced as before that TSN is being overly optimistic (just slightly). I still think the Sabres are on the bubble, but Philly, NYR, Pitt, and Boston are the only teams that I think are far, far superior.

Washington is a solid team but shaky at times. They benefit from devouring points in the SE. Florida played well last year under Dineen, but it's still a piecemeal team dependent on chemistry between a hodgepodge of free agents. Carolina's usually on the bubble, WPG is a monster at home but weak on the road, and TB always seems to struggle behind that D.

Then you have the Islanders, who are going to get swallowed up in the Atlantic, and the Devils who took a huge hit with Parise leaving. Ottawa's a wildcard to me, and Montreal still seems shaky. Then there's Toronto with all their problems.

Yeah, so the Sabres being safely in the playoffs isn't a massive stretch. Of course, the Sabres being out of the playoffs isn't much of one either. I think 6 through 13 is going to be a mess again this year.

TSN's Power Rankings have always been pretty awful because it is a mathematical sum of individual fantasy values...which leads to some weird rankings at times. Should always be taken with a grain of salt.

EDIT: Here's the explanation of the rankings:

Quote:

The individual player ratings are generated using a weighted formula that includes the following statistics:

Goaltenders are measured using goals against average, save percentage, won-loss differential and shutouts.

As more and more statistics have become readily available over the years, and continue to evolve, the ratings have been tweaked to reflect new and additional information.

Naturally, goals are most important (since there is a 100% correlation between scoring more goals and winning the game) and the scale decreases so that the more peripheral stats are virtually tie-breakers. That is, if you have a pair of 30-goal scorers, you would prefer the one that hits more frequently to the one that doesn't. It wouldn't likely provide a decisive advantage but, all other things being equal, would indicate a preference for one player over another.

Arriving at a single rating number for each player simply helps to synthesize an individual's contribution to the collective effort. Player ratings generally fall between 55 and 100, give or take a few points, with the very best players in the league pushing, or occasionally surpassing, 100, while fringe NHLers will be in the mid-50s.

So, now that each player has a rating based on his statistical production, the next step is to generate team rankings and I do that by weighting each player's contribution based on their role on the team. Thus, first line forwards count much more significantly than fourth-line forwards and top-pair defencemen are more impactful than third-pair defencemen and so on.

As we all know, many of those stats can be unreliable, or not tell the full story (for instance, defensive ability is not very well captured in those stats), which leads to inherent flaws in the rankings.

I think they're going to win the Southeast. They'll still have some defensive problems, but J. Staal and Semin will make them a much improved team.

Depends on how long it takes to adjust and find chemistry.

Teams with substantial turnover are at a disadvantage, because if it takes too long to mesh the season will be over before they can make their run. Of course, it very well could come together pretty fast, but there's always the risk that it takes too long to find the right line combos...and by that time you find yourself in a dogfight for 8th spot.

I think it's an interesting dynamic down south. Carolina's additions vs. a Tampa defense that doesn't have Marc Andre Bergeron as a top four guy (even if they overpaid like hell to do it) vs. Washington with a full season of Backstrom-Ribeiro-Laich depth down the middle and hypothetical resurgent Ovechkin. I wanna see how that all plays out.

Just don't see it happening. I just don't think they're a playoff team yet. I also think Ottawa could easily miss; they had a few players seriously over-perform their actual talent level last year (ie: Michalek), and their D outside of Karlsson looks horrible.

Just don't see it happening. I just don't think they're a playoff team yet. I also think Ottawa could easily miss; they had a few players seriously over-perform their actual talent level last year (ie: Michalek), and their D outside of Karlsson looks horrible.

TSN had their division preview on their video player, and they said that exact thing. Cowen is out for the year with a hip injury, and they lost Kuba, who IIRC, was Karlsson's parter, which was said to be a huge blow when he signed with Florida. I think we could get a 7 seed, and would be thrilled with a 6, but don't see more than that unless things really click fast.

If Grigs is as good as Suguin or Coutier in their rookie seasons, Ott's stability, and a relative healthy year.... We have solid defense and good goaltending...there would be no reason that we couldn't be a top team in the East. Personally, I really think it comes down to attitude, we have skill, balance, coaching, front office, etc., but if the team plays in fear of Lucic, we are done but if Ott, Scott and Kaleta....plus Foligno give the others a kind of fire and protection, I see a decent team that could.......

This would be my exact list as well. I feel like Winnipeg is going to be much better then people suspect. They did pick up Jokinen in FA. The thing that will hurt them the most is the insane amount of travel being in the Eastern Conference along with the condensed schedule.